91ÊÓƵ

The design for a six-story mixed-use building planned in the South Waterfront District deviates from a string of nearby towers, and that bothers neighbors.

South Waterfront residents and business owners attended a Portland Design Commission hearing Thursday to express concerns about Mack Urban‘s $36 million project for Block 37, near the intersection of Southwest Gaines Street and River Parkway. The building, as designed by GBD Architects, would crowd a riverfront bicycle and pedestrian path, and block Southwest Portland residents’ views of the Willamette River and Ross Island, critics said.

GBD Architects staffers sought design review for the 278-unit building, which would include 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 225 parking spaces. Commissioners did not vote, but instead scheduled another hearing for June 19 to further review plans and hear more public testimony.

Commissioners agreed with some of the neighbors’ concerns, including the building’s proximity to the Willamette River Greenway trail. Block 37 should step farther back from the trail and provide a smoother transition between private development and public space, Commissioner David Wark said.

“I don’t think a sliver of landscaping that’s two to five feet meets the spirit of this,” he said.

GBD Architects principal Katherine Schultz told commissioners that the Block 37 design takes into account both the trail and river east of the property.

“We are allowed by code to be on the property line,” she said. “Remember, we are not a tower. We sit more gently on the greenway.”

In response to commissioners’ advice given this past summer, GBD Architects redesigned the building’s eastern facade to gradually step away from the river.

“I think it does provide connections,” Schultz said. “We feel we’re achieving that by how we erode the building as well as providing stoops. There’s a transition of not only the trail, but the landscaping and the street.”

Another connection to the greenway, GBD Architects designer Craig Mendenhall said, is a lobby near the cul-de-sac on Gaines Street adjacent to the riverfront path.

“We wanted that ability of the lobby to spill out onto the greenway,” he said.

The building will be too close to the greenway, said George Crandall, principal of urban design firm Crandall Arambula. He addressed the commission on behalf of a group of South Waterfront residents and business owners who reviewed the Block 37 design.

“The amount of time the architect spent talking about that tells you that is a problem,” he said. “We say they’re crowding the greenway and we say it doesn’t really step down to the greenway.”

The development also would deviate from a view corridor established along Gaines Street where all buildings line up to preserve a view to the river, Crandall said.

“The promise was made to the people of the west hills that there would be view corridors,” he said. “I think this project sets a very dangerous precedent.”

Commissioner David Keltner agreed.

“It’s not fair to the other buildings that were built anticipating other buildings having that setback,” he said.

Commission Chairwoman Guenevere Millius said she didn’t mind that Block 37 would look different than other South Waterfront developments.

“I’m OK with varying the design,” she said. “I think a little difference in palette down there is OK.”

Commissioner Tad Savinar said he had an overarching concern with the design.

“Why design this building in this place?” he asked. “I feel like everything is compromised a little bit. Those things are a symptom of a larger approach to the project.”